Murdoch on winner's podium
Date: 15/07/2001
By David Potts, Business Editor
Rupert Murdoch is tipped to be the big winner from the Beijing Olympics as Wall Street extended its share rally to a third day.
News Corporation shares climbed 8¢ to $17.87, and John Reynolds, associate director of stockbrokerage Johnson Taylor Potter, predicted Mr Murdoch "would be the big beneficiary after all the effort he's put into cultivating China".
The announcement came after the Hong Kong stock exchange had closed down 47 points.
But the news is bleak for Telstra, which slipped another 5¢ to $5.21. It lost 14¢ on Friday when chief executive Ziggy Switkowski admitted Telstra had paid too much for its much-vaunted joint venture with Hong Kong's Pacific Century CyberWorks.
The benchmark Dow Jones index climbed 60 points, extending the previous day's 237-point rally.
The Nasdaq exchange, site of the share tech wreck last year, added another nine points to the previous day's 103-point rally.
Wall Street was buoyed by fresh signs of a stronger economy and the flight to quality over fears that Argentina may default on its debts, although the International Monetary Fund ruled out that prospect.
Analysts had expected profit taking to erode the share surge of the previous day.
The US Producer Price index, a key sign of inflation pressure, fell 0.4 per cent in June, while retail sales rose 0.2pc and the University of Michigan said consumer sentiment had also improved. But economists warned that the US economy had bottomed out rather than started to rebound.
A massive 181 companies will report their earnings to Wall Street this week, including key stocks IBM and Intel, and this would have an impact on the Australian sharemarket, Mr Reynolds said.
He predicted the market would rise about 10 points tomorrow.
The Australian dollar recovered ground, despite a generally stronger US dollar. It closed at US50.82¢, apparently without any propping up by the Reserve Bank.
Gold was virtually steady at $US266.35 an ounce while crude oil, measured by the benchmark West Texas intermediate grade, fell US20¢ to $US26.60 a barrel.
The Sun-Herald
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